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ABSTRACT
This study explored a method of representing the self graphically using elemental units of culture called memes. A diverse sample of eleven volunteers participated in the co-construction of individual self-maps during a series of interviews over a nine month period. Two of the resultant maps are presented as exemplars. Commonalities found in all
eleven maps lend support to the notion that there are certain structures to the self that are cross-cultural. The use of
memes in mapping those structures was considered useful but insufficient because emotive elements to the self emerged
from the research that could not be represented in memetic form. Suggestions are made for future research.
Keywords: Culture, Identity, Memes, Self, Self-Structure
1. Introduction
T Psychologists have discussed many aspects of the self
including self-concept [1,2], self-esteem [3,4], self-actualization [5,6], self-efficacy [7,8], and self-validation [9].
Eric Erikson said, The ability to form intimate relationships depends largely on having a clear sense of self
[10]. William Bridges [11,12] tied his theory of adult
transition to changes in this self. Alfred Adler placed
the self at the core of world view [1], and Adlerians
continue to emphasize social interest, intimacy and production in planning for self-change [13,14] Despite its
central importance to psychology, little has been done to
empirically detail and map the core concept of self. Rom
Harre [15] despaired at the difficulties inherent in such a
study:
The self that manages and monitors its own actions
and thoughts is never disclosed as such to the person
whose Self (sic) it is. It is protected from even the possibility of being studied empirically by its very nature.
Whenever it tries to catch a glimpse of itself it must become invisible to itself, since it is that very self which
would have to catch that very glimpse. It is known only
through reason. It is never presented in experience.
William James [16] postulated the existence of an objective me that included physical, active, social and
psychological components coupled with a subjective I
that included qualities of volition, constancy and distinctness. The Jamesian I and me were seen to be
different sides of a unitary self that could at once observe
and be observed, and it has become the basis of much
Copyright 2010 SciRes.
2. Method
Participants were recruited using print advertising and
posters supplemented by presentations made to classes
and community groups in a process of purposeful random sampling. Participants were volunteers who agreed
to talk about themselves in depth. The age range of the
eleven participants selected for this study was 24 to 59
with a median of 37.3. Eight of the participants in the
sample were resident in Calgary, Alberta, Canada and
three were resident in northern Saskatchewan, Canada.
Four participants were university students, six were employed, and one was unemployed. The sample was
equally divided by gender: five females, five males and
one transsexual. With respect to nationality, eight were
Canadian, one was Chinese, one was Russian, and one
had joint Canadian US American citizenship. The racial composition included seven Caucasians, two people
of North American aboriginal ancestry, one Chinese, and
one person whose mother was aboriginal and father was
white who identified herself as simply Canadian.
The eleven participants were taken to represent sufficient
diversity to test the generable applicability of this method
of mapping the self.
Participants were given an open-ended question inviting them to explain who they were in detail. Prompts
were allowed inviting elaboration. Following the qualitative method advocated by Miles and Huberman [34],
self-descriptive data obtained during these initial 1.5 to
two hour interviews were transcribed, and segmented
portions were given code words by the researcher representing specific units of thought. All of the segments
with the same code were then grouped, and each resultant grouping or bin was examined for referent, connotative, affective and behavioral dimensions. Bins that
exhibited all four dimensions satisfied the definition of
the term meme as used in this study, and the qualities
of each meme were examined for possible positive linkages or attractions with other memes. Memes that contained reference to another meme in their definition or
shared one of the four dimensions were deemed to be
linked. Code words representing each meme were then
displayed graphically and lines were drawn represented
linkages.
As an example of this segmenting process, a young
aboriginal (Metis) mother of three explained how becoming pregnant changed her: Having kids, you have no
Copyright 2010 SciRes.
thematic interpretive understandings, the complex structure of interlocking memes illustrated in Figure 1emerged with rememberer pictured as a diamond so as to
highlight its importance as a theme in his life. Links were
drawn connecting it with reflective, animator, student, storyteller and self-changer memes, and a
thematic arrowed line was drawn to other aspects of
himself on which he reflected including: self-aware,
friend, caring, family member and packrat.
The numbers beside the name of each meme in Figure
1 refer to the number of segments coded for that meme
during the initial interview. Memes without numbers
were added during subsequent interviews. Memes linked
to adjoining memes shared some connotative, affective
or behavioral quality. For example, self aware is linked
to storyteller because it is through the process of telling
stories Brent became more self-aware. In addition to
linked memes, themes were generated that linked larger
portions of the self-map. Such themes included humorous/takes self lightly, empowered animator and good
person. Themes emerged from the data and are represented in rectangle form. Broad arrows were drawn from
these themes to related memes. For example, Brent displayed his empowerment through his work as a broadcaster and his capacity for self-change; therefore, an arrow was drawn connecting these to memes with empowerment. Similarly, the theme of taking himself
lightly was woven, behaviourally with self-depreciating
humour, into his roles as a student, teacher, friend, leader
and broadcaster.
Brent defined himself as both rigid and flexible.
Tension between these two memes is displayed with a
double headed arrow connecting the two. Similarly,
memes for Catholic and environmentalist were also
defined by Brent as in conflict. After reviewing his initial
map, Brent suggested that he consisted of three selves:
self characteristics consisting of relatively stable physical and psychological features, a feeling or emotional
self, and a self defined through activity. He said that at
any given moment, all of these selves would likely be
operative and that his feelings and emotions would trigger other aspects of himself.
A map is necessarily a static representation, but the
self as experienced by Brent was a changing entity. For
example, Brent recounted his attempt to understand the
action of a former girlfriend who had ended their relationship after she saw his house. He resolved to deal with
some aspects of his packrat behaviours that she found
off-putting. He saw this as evidence of a new flexible
self, and this flexibility was subsequently applied to how
he judged others.
The meme labelled self-esteem represents a belief in
the value of working on this aspect of the self through
positive self-affirmations, recorded and reviewed positive memories and positive thinking. Brent explained that
Copyright 2010 SciRes.
felt it was important for the interviewer to know something about her city of origin. She both identified with
and had pride in that city, and this is represented in her
self-map as territorial representing, not possessiveness,
but identification. Territorial was interwoven repeatedly with family. Seventeen out of 82 segments were
coded for Family person, and this coding was linked to
territorial in Figure 2 as a theme as well as a meme.
More segments (19) were coded for deference than
family member, although the two were linked. The
label, deference, stands for a self-definition as a deferCatholic
frugal
family
member
(4)
community
learner
(1)
environmentalist
(6)
packrat
(4)
radio
listener
rigid
inquisitive
(2)
leader (3)
kind (1)
activist
(2)
music
athlete (6)
overextended
(2)
caring (1)
reflective
(7)
good person
(1)
affable
(3)
selfesteem
(4)
teacher
(10)
Active Self
empowered
animator (6)
broadcaster
(2)
self
changer
(6)
empathetic
(3)
rememberer
(13)
single (6)
Feeling Self
friend (1)
student
(3)
storyteller
(2)
positive
spirit (1)
humorous
(9)
Takes self
lightly
flexible
(7)
self
aware (2)
bald (1)
self
nurturer
(1)
Self
Characteristics
unique
person
Figure 1. Memetic map of Brent resulting from the segmentation and coding of his initial interview with changes that resulted from subsequent interviews
PSYCH
Christian
self
change
(5)
Active Self
story
teller (1)
dreamer
(1)
pet lover
(12)
caring (1)
animator
(4)
traveler
(2)
selfcritical
(4)
friend (3)
selfcentered
(4)
self
aware (1)
inquisitive
(2)
student
(14)
worker
deferent
(19)
family person
(17)
unique
experiencer
(1)
angry (5)
reflective
(2)
metaphor
maker (2)
environmentally
driven (2)
only child
(3)
territorial
(6)
daughter
(14)
rememberer
(7)
Passive Self
Love of, pride in parents and dog, background (including home city) is
a constant that will never change
Figure 2. Memetic map of Maomao resulting from the segmentation and coding of her initial interview with revisions from
subsequent interviews
4. Collective Results
Self-maps for each of the eleven participants were prepared and refined using the method described. Seven
participants said the maps reflected who they were at a
feeling level on the second interview. This point of resonance was reported by ten participants by the third interview.
All eleven self-maps included elements of volition,
constancy, distinctness, and feeling. In addition, two aspects of the Jamesian objective self, active and psychological were found in the maps of all of the participants. All participants agreed that their self changed over
time, and all related self-change to transitional events.
Three of the participants said they undertook planned
Copyright 2010 SciRes.
5. Discussion
Memes were used to illustrate relationships between culture and interconnected units of self that comprised the
self-definitions of participants. Participant insistence on
including recognition of emotion in their self-maps, beyond the emotive component of individual memes, was
unanticipated. Thus, memes may be a necessary but insufficient component in mapping the self. It may be that
a feeling of self, with its origins in the organism mapping
its body states, drives the creation of an autobiographical
self [36]. On the other hand, many organisms are capable
of reactive feelings based on their body states without
ever achieving self-consciousness. Therefore, the possibility that the self is a culturally learned construct that
generates concomitant feelings additional to those generated by body states should be considered, as in the example of Brents feeling self.
If we view the self to be a theory we construct based
on our personal experience, then such constructions are
necessarily limited to the scope of that experience and
the interpretive possibilities available to the individual.
When we attempt to examine that which is doing the
constructing, we are presented with a self-referencing
feedback loop leading to Harres [15] conclusion that
such a self must necessarily become invisible when it
attempts self-examination. Yet, possession of a self allows one to situate ones being in relation to others and
in relation to past events and future possibilities practices that imply a certain level of awareness. Therefore,
the felt illusion of an unseen homunculus, existing momentarily outside of oneself to conduct this self-examination, is generated.
Feelings of volition, uniqueness and constancy may
also be generated from the logic of having a self. It is
difficult to imagine volition without an element of distinctness or individuation implying that a person, separate from others, is carrying out a particular act. None of
the participants in this study were able to point an aspect
of their selves that exercised this volition and attempts to
name that which was unique or constant were met with
responses like, the combination (of self-characteristics)
Copyright 2010 SciRes.
flowed from her earlier programming where both goodness and action were other-defined. Without the direct
support of her family and community, she was open to
finding a substitute family and community to give moral
direction within the new (Canadian) context. Although
she preferred to not make her own decisions, she did not
consult with her parents prior to her religious conversion.
It is as though her selfs maintenance needs initiated an
act of volition that would not be countermanded by consultation with the usual authority figures. Thus, we are
presented with the paradox of an other-determined self
acting independently to maintain this quality.
All of the participants to this study were able to recount childhood transitions contributing to the development of their selves. This supports the notion the self
develops experientially from units of culture associated
with those experiences. Evolutionary change is likely
with such an entity as memes are modified, new memes
compatible with existing self-defining memes are added,
and old peripheral memes are discarded; however, fundamental change involving the construction of a new self
would be extremely difficult. There would be no one
internally to oversee such a construction as the existent
self that would occupy this role is itself the object of deconstruction.
In summary, all of the participants in this study exhibited a similar structure of self. Self-change occurred in
the histories of all of the participants, and they were able
to detail environmental events that helped determine who
they became. The initial self was established in childhood and further change to that self was evolutionary.
6. Limitations
People who volunteer to talk about themselves may have
different characteristics than those who do not volunteer
to talk about themselves. They might be expected to exhibit higher levels of assertiveness and self-confidence.
Such characteristics could speak to feelings of empowerment and the volunteers level of social activism. All
the participants to this study expressed an interest in, or
were engaged in, action to make the world a better place
for others. It may be that there are people who do not
have this orientation, and they may not be predisposed to
volunteer for this kind of research. Therefore, these results cannot be interpreted as universal.
The qualities of the researcher can and do affect outcomes [41,42]. While the method used in this study attempted to minimize this risk through the use of
non-directive open-ended questioning, researcher effects
on the participant sample could not be negated totally.
For example, one participant took two sessions before
she was willing to share that she was bi-sexual. Had the
researcher been more or less engaging, more or less enthusiastic, or more or less accepting of diversity, this
result could have varied.
Copyright 2010 SciRes.
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